ROMESH RANGANATHAN has firmly established himself as one of Britain’s best-loved comedians and his Brighton Dome show underlined his growing popularity.

But before that Jen Brister had 20 or so minutes to shine, and shine she did.

A rising star of the British comedy scene, the Londoner delivered a short set that warmed the audience up well for the main event.

It would have been tough for plenty of comedians to follow but Romesh feels at home in Brighton – and it shows.

Casually strolling on to the stage he is a long way from the Crawley maths teacher who first took to open mic stages in the city not many years ago.

The first half of the show comprises complaints about his children and the difficulties of knowing how to feel when Michael Jackson songs come on the radio now.

He delivers jokes effortlessly and while they must have taken months to perfect you can imagine him hitting the stage having just thought them up.

In the second half it is much of the same, except he went into a lot more detail about his sex life than some in the crowd were comfortable with – most notably the couple behind me.

A tale of how he lost his son on Brighton beach one day comes full circle at the end of his set as he reflects on how his children must see him and his negative view of the world.

There are moments in the show where the crowd isn’t sure how to react – jokes about his controversial tweets and what would happen if one of his children was kidnapped are prime examples.

If anyone in the audience took genuine offence to these then they clearly haven’t seen Romesh perform before.

Yes he may say things that aren’t strictly politically correct, but he knows most of his audience have the exact same thoughts.

In his own words “I’m in a fortunate position to be able to express my thoughts”.

Comedy is intended to push buttons and that is exactly what he does. But it’s all in good fun and for all his cynicism and pessimism Romesh does deliver a cracking stand-up show.